Back-and-forth. Back-and-forth.

The Chesterton girls basketball team and Highland battled for 29 minutes, but the final 3:00 were all you needed. That was good enough for CHS as they picked up a 52-50 victory Tuesday night.

After turning the ball over on three consecutive possessions, Chesterton found themselves down 49-45 with just two minutes to play.

“All three turnovers, the ball was knocked out of our hands,” Chesterton coach Jack Campbell said. “Those could be called fouls and we talked about being tougher with the ball. We just didn’t get the call there.”

Ryan Bozak scored a basket from 18 feet to pull the Trojans within 49-47 and Lindsay Gorman’s free throws tied the game with 57.8 seconds left. Bozak finished with a career-high 17 points.

“Bozak has been sick, so I think we’re going to have her infect the rest of our kids,” Campbell said. “She could’ve made a basket with her eyes shut tonight. She made some huge baskets.”

After a Highland turnover, Claire Holba hit a free throw and the rebound on the second one went out of bounds off of Highland. Seven seconds later, Gorman hit two free throws for a 52-49 lead.

“I thought it was a great comeback,” Campbell said. “We had to play another team that didn’t have much size, but had so much speed and quickness. They gave us fits, got some open shots and made them.”

Highland’s Michelle Geissler was fouled and awarded three shots with 9.3 seconds left. She made only one, but Highland got the ball back underneath its own basket with 3.5 seconds to play.

Chesterton’s Riley Taubert stole the inbounds pass to end the Highland threat.

“We’ve tried to change things and I’ve violated all my rules about changing things midway through the season,” Campbell said. “We’re trying to make changes and play more motion on offense.”

The Trojans hit on 16-of-34 shots from the field (47 percent) and were led by Holba’s 20-point, 9-rebound performance.

Chesterton finishes the regular season on Friday night when they travel to Valparaiso for a 6 p.m. junior varsity tip.

Chesterton (12-11-15-14)

Ryan Bozak 6-9 2-4 17, Alyssa White 1-5 1-2 3, Lindsay Gorman 0-2 7-8 7, Claire Holba 7-11 6-9 20, Riley Taubert 1-6 0-0 2, Maddie Houpt 0-0 0-0 0, Reva Key 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 16-34 17-25 52.

Highland (11-12-11-16)

Julia Wiesemann 4-9 1-2 9, Melissa Franko 3-5 0-0 8, Briana Kikalos 5-15 2-2 12, Nikki Goodeve 2-5 1-2 5, Becca Mahler 0-0 1-2 1, Michelle Geissler 0-0 1-6 1, Katie Toweson 1-1 0-0 2, Elizabeth Quinn 2-7 0-0 4, Breanna Glotzbach 0-0 0-0 0, Britney Henson 4-6 0-0 8. Totals 21-48 6-14 50.

3-point field goals: Chesterton 3-6 (Bozak 3-4, Gorman 0-2); Highland 2-10 (Wiesemann 0-1, Franko 2-4, Kikalos 0-3, Quinn 0-2). Rebounds: Chesterton 24 (Holba 9); Highland 29 (Wiesemann 7). Assists: Chesterton 12 (Gorman 4); Highland 9 (Geissler 3). Steals: Chesterton 9 (White 2, Holba 2); Highland 7 (Henson 2).

The Highland Trojans jumped out to a 12-4 lead after one period of play and held on for a 32-23 victory over Chesterton.

Megan Matheny led CHS with six points, while Hannah McCafferty had five points and 10 rebounds. Ari Mahaffey had four points with Taylor Bissonette, Kierstin Berry, Brittany Wilcox and Sara Filipek all had two points.

Posted 2/3/2010